If you've seen the movie, you'll know that this is not the official Title Sequence of Sean Penn's Into the Wild. 21-year-old Dutch design student Jurjen Versteeg created this animation as part of a school assignment and we think it's a great achievement. We don't intend to make a habit of including student pieces in the collection, but sometimes rules are meant to be bent and broken. Are they not? Let us know what you think.

“The school assignment was simply to create a title sequence based on an existing movie,” says Jurjen Versteeg. "I chose Into the Wild – a film that combines beautiful images with a nice soundtrack. The original title sequence wasn't very good though, in my opinion, with the  two different fonts that morph into each other. I designed an alternative title sequence that recaptures the story of the film. It's about venturing off from the big city into the wilderness and discovering all kinds of new situations and exciting new environments along the way.”

“Usually I work a lot with 3D and Photoshop. I use After Effects only for compositing. The execution of the project was done completely in After Effects, which was quite a challenge. I tend to use 3D to get the most out of certain elements of an animation. In this case, I used layers that were first cut out in Photoshop and animated, 2.5D style, in After Effects. The particles, such as the dollar bills and the snow, were created using the Trapcode Particular plugin. I found it interesting to discover that you can use After Effects to create a sequence with a 3D feel.”

Dutch motion designer Jurjen Versteeg studied Interactive Multimedia and Audiovisual Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. In 2009, for a school project, Versteeg created an alternative title sequence for Sean Penn's road movie Into The Wild, which got him on the radar of motion design blogs worldwide, including Watch the Titles. For his graduation project in 2011 Versteeg focused all his energy on title design, which culminated in another fictitious title sequence, this time for a documentary about title design. With A History Of The Title Sequence Versteeg  won the 2012 Vimeo Award in the Motion Graphics category. He recently founded his own creative studio in Rotterdam, From Form.
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Comments (22):

21 Jul 09 • by: yentl delanhesi
i've seen the movie and i think this is totally coherent with it!

first i thought that visually the aesthetical was not that much. the animation didn't seem to match with the "wild" and so "organic" movie.

but then, it started making me remind the movie and fell what i felt the time i saw it (and i think a good "intersemiotic translation" should do this exactly).

conceptually, the walking on the globe that spins represents his journey - alone and using his own body as tool to survive (here he is walking, there, he hunts...).

the scenario that changes constantly shows the phases of his adventure. and in the end of it, he is alone, with the emptiness surrounding him - when he is all prepared to then realize what and where the happiness is.

nice.

24 Jul 09 • by: Gokhan Kurt
It really looks great but I agree with yentl delhanhesi's critiques. well done.

24 Jul 09 • by: samuel Rogers
freaking amazing!
it's beautiful :)

1 Aug 09 • by: xpez2000
Very nice production value.

To mimic the movie with a visual shorthand of events and places in the title sequence is a missed opportunity to express other important ideas and concepts that will show the viewer something they will not see or nor experience in the movie.

2 Aug 09 • by: andy
posted this a few places, but -
still no video on the site in os x 10.5.7 on either FF 3.5 or safari 4 with the latest flash 10, been that way for a few months now...:(

3 Aug 09 • by: Remco
Hi Andy,

We're going to look into this annoying bug next week.

Meanwhile, you could try reloading the page. Videos play after a reload, on some systems at least. Works for me on my Mac at home.

4 Aug 09 • by: HRP27
It's Amazing.

5 Aug 09 • by: Silvia
I can not see the videos ... why?
Before going well, now I have this problem ..:(

sorry for my english..I'm italian..

5 Aug 09 • by: coco jones
So beautiful and creative as well as being perfectly in line with the films themes. Nice one! x

5 Aug 09 • by: christian
wow, that was amazing.

8 Aug 09 • by: Vanessa Maynard
absolutely amazing

1 Sep 09 • by: Sean Molloy
Excellent...! I love it...well done.
You guys should break the rules more often...if those are the results we get to see.

5 Sep 09 • by: Peter uit het vloamsche balegem
vree schoon
proficiat!
heeeel heeel leuk

26 Sep 09 • by: DeW
This is absolutley awsome. And give such a feeling with the music!

13 Jan 10 • by: Steve D. Smothers
Great execution. I love this.

4 Feb 10 • by: walther
Fantastic sequence,
Saw the exibition in the MU Eindhoven. This one blew me away!

Great work!

16 Feb 10 • by: walther
There were over 30 film titles in the show at MU, is this the only one that

17 Feb 10 • by: Mana
Maravilloso

6 May 10 • by: buster
I think this looks great, and is very well done.

And for the assignment I hope he got an A.

but I think it wouldn't really be that good in the movie.
The movie's real title sequence is somewhat "lame" but thats exactly the point. no fancy stuff. Just raw and simple.
for me, this would damage that raw feeling.

26 Oct 11 • by: Bobbie
Great artilce, thank you again for writing.

2 Nov 11 • by: Bubbie
IMHO you've got the right awnser!

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